Actor Dan Stevens has opened up about leaving Downton Abbey after three years, admitting that some people thought he was "mad" to want his character, Matthew Crawley, to be killed off.
The star, who appeared in the period drama between 2010 and 2012, told The Guardian that he asked the show creator, Julian Fellows, to write his character out of the series just before filming for season three began.
Despite enjoying his time on the show, Dan has admitted that he was worried about becoming typecast and wanted to try his hand at other genres once his initial contract was up...
"Nobody knew what Downton Abbey was going to become. There was no sense when we were making it that it would be the juggernaut it turned into. But there were definitely creative itches left unscratched, genres I hadn’t worked in. Three years were up, that’s what we’d initially signed up for, and the appetite to explore further was too great," he explained.
But with another death already scripted for season three, Dan had to wait until the Christmas special in 2012 for his character to meet his untimely end. In a devastating storyline twist, Matthew was killed off in a fatal car accident while driving home from the hospital after visiting his wife Mary following the birth of their son, George.
“It’s not something I expect people to readily understand,” Dan said of the departure. “Some admire it, others think I was mad: that the part was the greatest thing that could ever happen to me.”
Of course, fans know that Dan has since gone on to star in some of the biggest movies and TV shows since his Downton departure, and has moved to the US with his wife and three children as his career continues to go from strength to strength.
As well as appearing in movies such as The Guest, Beauty and the Beast, Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, and Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga, he has also appeared in shows like Netflix horror Apostle and FX series, Legion.
Dan is currently starring in Gaslit, a new Starz drama that lifts the lid on the Watergate scandal. Dan plays John Dean, the top lawyer within the Nixon administration who eventually turned on the President, making stunning revelations that eventually lead to Nixon's downfall.
Gaslit is now available on Starz in the US and Canada, and on the streaming platform Starzplay (available on Prime Video) in the UK and Europe, Latin America and Japan.
Downton Abbey: A New Era will be released in theaters on May 20 in the US and April 29 in the UK.
